Roy Lamberton, CTRCS USN/USNR Retired, 1967-1994 I started out as a NROTC Midshipman Electrical Engineering student at the University of Rochester, who couldn't pass Calculus and Chemistry - two courses rather important to the major. The navy removed me from the ranks of Ossifers and Gentlemen, making me a Seaman Apprentice (for all my drilling) and stuck me in my nearest Surface Reserve unit, which happened to be in Freeport NY. I was then attending Nassau Community College, in an attempt to get back to engineering, but also managed to fulfill all the requirements for being advanced to Seaman. One thing I had to do to be advanced was a training duty, which was performed on the USS Thadeus Parker (DE 369) in Bayonne, NJ. A splendid time was had on the old "can" including an afternoon of playing NBC casualty - a story for another time. So how did this lead to 29 years of CT-dom you ask? During the next year, all of the disenrolled NROTC Middies were released from the reserves so we could be drafted. I managed another year of college before screwing up my EE degree, and was out there as a nice sitting duck waiting to join Uncle Sam's wearers of green uniforms. I was working in the University of Rochester's Cosmic Ray Laboratory, building computers to track cosmic rays. One of the other techs was an older guy - who obviously had been around. When the Draft Board sent me a "request" to get their physical, he suggest that I Go Navy and get into this neat area where the rating was a CT. I trotted down to the local Rochester, NY recruiting station and rejoined (as a Seaman with almost 2 years longevity, and an all number service number) I wound up at Camp Barry at Glakes in January 1967- the January where the temp his 80 degrees one day, and the January where the city of Chicago had 2 feet of snow in 12 hours. A lot of that snow fell on the Lakes also. When it came time for "classification," I had little trouble with the GCT/ARI stuff - have always been good at multiple guess tests, and wound up across the desk of a 2nd class yeoman who asked what I wanted to do, since I was qualified for almost everything. I said the magic words - "CT." The yeoman promptly put me in a waiting area so I could talk to the CT classifier, who turned out to be a giant first class CT, who asked me if I was a homosexual - a pretty wild question to ask a 20 year old kid who had chased girls in Rochester, but I later found out it was related to getting a clearance. In any case, I had scored high enough on all the tests to be assigned to Corey after boot camp, to attend CTR A school (the old Tamborillo Community College), and the rest is "history." I have always told kids thinking about joining the Navy to look into the old Secgru, and even suggested to a wandering Naval Academy grad that he consider the new EW command, since he had a degree in computer science. I still recommend the Navy, and the CT rating. It sure was a fun way to spend 3 3/4 years and playing "spook" for another total 20+ years in the reserves had its moments too. rsl